African American Males Navigate Racial Microaggressions

Background/Context: High school educational environments find Black males experience systemic racial microaggressions in the form of discipline policies, academic tracking and hegemonic curriculum. Black males in high school are more likely than their White male peers to have high school truancies and be viewed as intentionally sinister. African American males are labeled by White teachers and administrators as deviant for issues like talking in class, dress code violations and being tardy. Deficit perceptions about African American students as held by White teachers and administrators serve as racial microaggressions within K–12 context.

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study: Racial microaggressions based on prejudicial White beliefs of teachers impedes the learning process of participants. Racial microaggressive acts are problematic due to being a symptom of the overarching campus racial climate, which is often indicative of the negative historic treatment of Black males by Whites. The cumulative impact of racial microaggressions on Black males negatively impacts self-image, academic performance, and social navigation skills. Examining how Black males responded to racial microaggressions by White teachers and administrators at culturally diverse high school settings was the impetus for this study.

Research Design: To understand how African American male students responded to racial microaggressions qualitative research was used. Conducting a study that focuses on multiple individualistic lived experiences, I am mindful that “human actions cannot be understood unless the meaning that humans assign to them is understood.” This comparative case study allowed for narrative expression, which informed the experiential meanings participants assigned to enduring racial microaggressions by gathering in-depth information through multiple sources to understand participants’ real life meanings to situations.

Bryan HotchkinsTexas Tech UniversityE-mail AuthorBRYAN K. HOTCHKINS is an Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University in the Ed Psychology and Leadership Department. As a critical organizational and leadership scholar, Bryan problematizes the ways in which enrollment, persistence, and graduation serve as functions of organizational productivity. His research primarily mines how institutional macro- and microorganizational influence(s) impact student academic, social, and leadership trajectories in higher education to better understand how practitioners and academicians can/should empower marginalized student populations. His current work examines faculty allied roles in supporting student retention. He also has a developing research agenda that examines the intersection of organizational efficiency and identity development of members.